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April 23rd, 1944 (SUNDAY)

ARCTIC SEA: U-307 met U-703 in the Arctic Sea and provided them with a needed spare part. (Dave Shirlaw)

BALTIC SEA: During the Baltic exercises U-1169 lost one man off Pillau. [Matrosengefreiter Alfred Friedl]. (Dave Shirlaw)

EGYPT: Alexandria: Greek officers board three striking warships, with the loss of 50 lives.

BURMA: Air Commando Combat Mission N0. 48 3:05 Flight Time Hailakandi, Assam to Indaw, Burma. Bombed Japanese troop concentration and strafed village. My last mission with Lt/Col R. T. Smith. note: This is an expanded version of the mission>

At 1300 hours 8 B-25 Hs, escorted by 10 P-51B fighters took off from Hailakandi on what was the most ruthless, yet necessary, raids I had ever been on. Our objective was a Burmese village on the North shore of Indaw Lake. A Chindit column was advancing from the main stronghold, the roadblock at Mawlu. They needed the water here for drinking. We arrived over our target at 1500 hours. The weather was fair, but with poor visibility because of the haze from burning forest fires abundant this time of year throughout Burma.

Our aircraft “Barbie III,” led the first flight over the target and released our fragmentation cluster bombs (para-frags) at an altitude of about two hundred feet. Our bomb cover was good and fires immediately broke out in several parts of the village. Captain Sinskie led his formation over next, but released his incendiary clusters too late and they overshot by two hundred yards. Captain Ziegler came over last and dropped his para-frags. They covered the entire town and more fires immediately came into view. Smoke rose to 2,000 feet. The fighters came in last and dive bombed a small group of huts about one-half mile northwest of our target. They were carrying two five hundred General Purpose bombs per aircraft.

As soon as the fighters finished and got altitude above us, R. T. ordered two flights into our gunnery pattern and we commenced strafing the village. Our . 75 mm shells tore into the thatched buildings and literally exploded them into a thousand pieces. I would hear the heavy rattle of our six . 50 calibre machine guns and the dull thud and jolt of our cannon, a thousand yards away a hut (basha) would explode in a red flash and black smoke. I could see our tracers hitting the ground and ricocheting into the air. They appeared to eat their way into a basha. We averaged three burst of machine gun fire and three cannon shells per run. After each aircraft had made two passes, we concentrated our fire on the basha area the fighters had dive bombed. Two runs were made on these and then we started working over the flat bushy stretch of ground starting at the lake edge and then into town. This area contained trenches and dugouts which I strafed from my turret as we pulled out from a run. I could see no results from my fire. (Chuck Baisden)

NEW GUINEA: US Forces occupy Hollandia. Subsidiary landings at Aitape are continuing as well.

CANADA:

Corvettes HMCS Trentonian, Lindsay and Louisburg departed Halifax to join Western Approaches Command. (Dave Shirlaw)

U.S.A.: Destroyers USS Mannert L Abele and Strong launched.
Destroyer USS Keppler laid down.

Submarine USS Blower launched.

Destroyer escort USS Charles E Brannon launched. (Dave Shirlaw)

ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-193 listed as missing in the Bay of Biscay. No explanation exists for its loss. 59 dead (all hands lost).

Destroyer HS Salamis (ex-HMS Boreas) lost a gun mount in heavy weather in Atlantic Ocean. (Dave Shirlaw)